Monday, December 29, 2008

Leaving Clitheroe

We had a wonderful time at Ben and Wendy's. Sierra loved five days of continuous play with Florence. It was hard for both girls to say goodbye. Florence told Sierra she wanted her to come back.

I've added more pictures to the blog of their wonderful house. The woodwork throughout the house was amazing. The pictures don't do the house justice. There are a total of 7 rooms and 2 bathrooms in the house. They have a large backyard with trees, a garden and an eight foot rock fence for security/privacy. They have tapestries hanging throughout the house with many antique pieces of furniture.

Clitheroe is a great English town. I've included a picture of the castle. It has a lot of specialty shops from bread, toys, meat and chocolates. All of the roads are cobble stone, which is fun when you are trying to push Sierra in a stroller over all of them.

Today, Wendy drove us to the Preston train station which is about a half hour drive from Clitheroe. The train was 10 minutes late and it was very cold waiting on the platform. Once we got all our luggage on the train, it was a sporting event trying to get all three of us to our reserved seats. Tim had to ask people to move out of our seats. The train ride ended up being 2 hours long. Fortunately, Ben had packed snacks for Sierra, so she was content. We got into Birmingham a half hour late. Then it was a madhouse free for all trying to get out of the platforms and to a restroom. When we found one, it costs us 30 pence each (45 cents) to use the restroom. Even the locals were upset about having to pay to use the restroom. By then it was 2:00pm and we were all starving. We found a Burger King and eat chicken nuggets and burgers. (Ahh...the taste of America) We splurged for a taxi rather than trying to lug all of our suitcases onto a double decker bus. We arrived back at Woodbrooke at 3pm where we greeted warmly and shown to the same room as we've had before. It doesn't look like too many visitors are here. It may be pretty quiet here until after New Year's.

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